OWN CORRESPONDENT and AFP, Pretoria | Wednesday
THE Reserve Bank has described South Africa’s loss of 39 213 formal jobs in the second quarter of this year after widespread restructuring and government retrenchments as “alarming and concerning”.
Statistics SA said in its Survey of Total Employment and Earnings (STEE) that at the end of June this year, 4.73m people were formally employed, almost 150 000 – or 3,1% – fewer than a year before. For the quarter covering the three months to June compared with the previous three-month period, the drop was 0,8%, or 39213 jobs.
The figures cover the formal business sector and excludes agriculture, self-employed people who are not registered for value added tax, and domestic services.
Stats SA acting head Ros Hirschowitz said there had been a steady decline in employment in the formal non-agricultural business sector since 1997.
“The decrease in the formal non-agricultural business sector does not necessarily reflect an equivalent increase in the number of unemployed persons in South Africa,” said Annette Myburgh, chief director of economic statistics and national accounts at Stats SA.
“Some of these persons may have found or created employment in industries not covered in this series, or in self-employed or small enterprises not registered with the government.”
She said the latest STEE results indicated a quarterly decrease across all industries. “(This) was mainly due to the retrenchment of permanent and casual employees.”
According to the survey, the transport, storage and communication sector which includes Telkom and Transnet, reflected the largest decline due to restructuring, with a loss of 12735 jobs.